St Bernards High School - Bernardian Yearbook (Fitchburg, MA)

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.... [he old order changeth, “The old order changeth, yielding place to new, andGod fulfills himself in many ways, I have lived my life, and that which I have done May He within himself make pure! but thou, If thou shouldst never see my face again, Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day.” As sophomores we became better acquainted with King Arthur and his knights. In the Passing of Arthur, we sympathized with Sir Bedivere, who bitterly bewailed that “the true old times are dead,” the Round Table dissolved, and he the last of the knights “‘go forth companionless among new men, strange faces, other minds.” We climb with Sir Bedivere to the highest peak and see him strain his eyes to catch the last glimpse of the black hull that carries his king farther and farther away from him. We hear his cry, “He passes to be King among the dead.” The old order for us, too, has changed and is continually changing. There is no such thing as standing still. If we are not going forward, then we are slipping gradually backward. As sen- iors we see the old order of things changing in our school building from day to day. Construction work is going on all around us. During the month of September, we could not use the auditorium as the new and much larger stage had not been completed. But it was worth any inconvenience we might have had to endure, when we did have our first general assem- bly and we noted the new changes. The new lighting system installed in classrooms and corridors has made even the darkest day bright for us. We appreciate this, having experienced the gloom of the old lights on a dull, gray day. The new inter-com system has already been completed and operating in fine style. Although we will not benefit from the new addition to the school, we are grateful that we will be the first class to present our senior play on the new stage, outstanding for its size, lighting effects, and dressing rooms.

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ee Mr. Thomas Lane Mrs. Warren Fisher Mr. William Connors 1 i

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yielding place to new... The passing of Arthur and the change from the old order to the new was attended with a calm and gentle serenity. But our transformation here at SBHS from the old to the new makes itself heard as well as seen. The first few weeks were such a change from the usual day-to-day routine undisturbed by noises foreign to a classroom. But by now we have become accustomed to the whirring sound of efficient, but noisy, modern construction machines of all sizes and shapes. In no time the powerful bulldozer changed the face of our erstwhile portable yard, putting portables 41, 42, 45, and 46 out of existence. Portables 43 and 44 are still with us but their days also are numbered. They, too, will be a thing of the past as soon as two new rooms are completed to replace them. The newest and highest of the eight portables, 47 and 48, will be retained and connected with the new addition. The removal of the portables marks another transition for us from the old to the new and recalls our freshman days, which were happy days, we must now admit. Our isolation knitted us more. closely together as a class than if we were mingling with the upperclassmen. There was a sense of proud proprietorship— the portables were ours and the yard was ours and the upper classes were told to keep out. We had heard the portables referred to as the “chicken coops’’ and soon we also were maligning them as such. But one day the portables came into their own and had a taste of glory, when the architects surveying the premises referred to them as campus buildings. So the portables were after all right in step with modern trends in school construction. Now the middle of October, we see the steel framework of the four-storied addition standing erect and skeleton like. It is hoped that it will be ready for OC cupancy in September, 1964. But we will not be included in the enrollment of the 1100 who will en- joy the new classrooms and the new labs, the caf- eteria, and the new chapel. Our memories of our alma mater will be those of the old St. Bernard’s High which we share with the hundreds of Ber- nardians who have preceded us since that first opening day back in September of ’27.